It was 
Well, the grind officially ended Thursday night, when Mora put his players through their final training camp practice – the 24th overall, and the last of the seven two-a-day sessions.
But maybe Houshmandzadeh was on to something when the veteran wide receiver hung that tag on Camp Mora – because while training camp might be over in theory, in reality the fine grinding will continue.
“While technically it’s the end of training camp, by no means is it the start of the season,” Mora said. “In my mind we’re still going to be in a training camp mode until we get ready to play the Rams (Sept. 13 in the regular season opener).”
Gulp, and double gulp, said the look that washed across the usually smiling face of left guard
“Tough,” he said, before breaking into not only a smile but also a hearty laugh. “We’ve had one off day since this thing started. Coach said he was going to do it, and he did it.”
This camp was shorter, even if it didn’t seem that way to the players. The Seahawks have traditionally broken camp before the third preseason game. This year, with Mora contorting tradition at seemingly every turn, camp broke before the second preseason game.
But the gap was bridged by rapidly paced, high-tempo practices, and that lone day off for the players.
“Some people didn’t believe him,” Sims said of the downtime at Camp Mora being singular. “But we just had to trust him. He said it would be fine.
“And I think I became a better player, and we became a better team.”
The getting-better process will continue, starting with Saturday night’s preseason home opener against the Denver Broncos at Qwest Field. But the groundwork – and grunt work – definitely was done the past three weeks.
“It was a good camp,” defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said. “We got a lot of reps, a lot of different situations practiced. Now, we’ve got to put it all together these next three preseason games.
“We’ll see. But in our minds, as coaches, it’s been a good camp.”
Offensive coordinator Greg Knapp concurred – with Bradley, and also Mora.
“I’m very pleased with the progress,” he said. “We still have a long way to go, but I think we’re on track with what we’ve seen in practice.”
As with Bradley and his more aggressive and creative approach on defense, the offense has changed under Knapp. There’s the zone-blocking scheme, but there’s also the “foreign” language the quarterbacks had to conquer so they could even call the plays.
“I like the new offense, but it’s hard,”
But Hasselbeck and the other QBs are now fluent in the new verbiage.
“One of my indicators that tells me we’re on target is when I give the play to the quarterback and he’s not asking, ‘OK, what was that formation?’ Or, ‘What is that extension of the play called?’ ” Knapp said. “He’s got it, he goes in the huddle and we’re moving.
“So I’m very pleased with them making the right calls. But it’s still camp.”
Even when it’s technically not. On Friday, most of the players will move out of housing they’ve called home since late July. Next week, the practices will switch to a one-a-day format, and they’ll be late-morning sessions – rather than the 8:30-10:30 a.m. and 6:30-8:30 p.m. schedule used for two-a-days at training camp.
But the focus at those practices and in meetings will continue to feel very much like training camp.
“We have a lot to work on,” Mora said. “Thank God we have three more preseason games. We have to work on our run game, there’s a lot to be done there. Timing in the pass game with some of the new concepts and some of the new receivers. Tackling. Communication. Coaches have a lot of work to do in terms of game management and communication on the sidelines.
“We’re still in a training camp frame of mind in terms of learning and introducing situations and practicing situations and those things.”
Welcome to Camp Mora, Phase 2.
